Biographer Anne Sebba came face to face with a chilling Nicole Farhi sculpture of Ethel Rosenberg – the subject of her book Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy – at Pitzhanger Manor & Gallery in Ealing on Friday (25 April 2025).
Ms Sebba’s book tells the story of Ethel Rosenberg, a 37-year-old American mother of two, who was executed in New York in 1953 alongside her husband Julius after being convicted on trumped-up charges of spying for Russia.
Drawing on interviews and letters from Rosenberg’s final years in prison, Ms Sebba reveals her as an intelligent, devoted woman who was innocent of the crimes she was accused of.
She said: “Nicole was generous enough to say she had the idea, having read my book. I feel very proud that it could be a catalyst for all of this.”
Unlike the colourful faces of the 24 other figures in Farhi’s J’Accuse…! exhibition, Rosenberg’s sculpture is strikingly monochrome – a pale face framed by thick black hair. The eerie look is based on accounts from Rosenberg’s execution, where smoke was seen rising from her head after a botched electrocution left her ghostly white.
Nicole Farhi said: “I was reading a book by Anne Sebba about the tragic life and death of Ethel Rosenberg. I was really struck by that story, by her death, which was awful. I was so shocked when I read what had happened to this woman, innocent of the crimes she was accused of, that I had to sculpt her face to free myself from my emotions.”
Ms Sebba was at Pitzhanger Manor as part of the Ealing Book Festival talking about her latest book The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz.
